Six volunteers of the World Wide Fund for Nature were abducted by unidentified militants from a thickly-forested area close to India-Bhutan border in Assam on Sunday evening.The volunteers were working in a tiger monitoring project in Ripu-Chirang Wildlife Sanctuary near Bhutan border to the west of Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam. They were abducted from a place called Ultapani.The security forces have launched a search operation to trace the abducted volunteers.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom, preparing for unconditional dialogue with the Government of India, has said that its leaders and cadres involved in the current peace process with the government will have 'zero involvement' in the forthcoming assembly elections in Assam.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam will meet Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi on February 10 to discuss modalities for the peace talks that is on the anvil between the outfit and the government.Talking to the media for the first time after the outfit decided to hold an unconditional dialogue with the government in its general council meeting on January 30, the leadership of the outfit said that Chidambaram had invited them for the meeting.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday demanded that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance II government at the Centre take immediate steps to end the nexus between the Trinamool Congress and Maoists to ensure peaceful elections in West Bengal.
Communist Party of India - Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday stated that the Left parties would not compromise on the demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the 2G spectrum scam.The CPI-M leader underlined the urgent need for an alternative economic policy as the people were reeling under scorching prices for the 'wrong policies adopted by the United Progressive Alliance'.
After successfully mobilising public opinion to favour the release of senior leaders of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom to facilitate talks with the government, the Sanmilita Jatiya Abhibartan, a forum of leading citizens and civil society organisations, has now started preparing the charter of demands that the outfit can present ahead of the peace talks.
Taking a step forward to hold a dialogue with the Government of India, the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa has sent a letter to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi expressing his outfit's desire to hold unconditional peace talks.
The government is determined to start negotiation with the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom sans the participation of its fugitive 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Barua. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday said that dialogue with ULFA will start as soon as the outfit will take a formal decision in its general council meeting.
The anti-talks faction of banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a Bodo tribe militant group in Assam has declared a unilateral truce with the government of India, in response to the government's call for negotiations.
Highlighting corruption and financial scandals during the United Progressive Alliance regime and evolving strategies for the forthcoming assembly elections in five states across the country will be the focus of the two-day national executive body meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party to be held in Guwahati from Saturday.
The banned United Liberation Front of Asom on Friday gave a strong message to the government that it may be down off late because of the reverses it has suffered in Bangladesh and in the wake of arrest of so many of its top leaders, saying it is definitely not.
The ULFA chairman filed the bail petitions following release of five senior ULFA leaders on bail from jail in the last six months that has raised hopes for beginning of a dialogue with the outfit.
The North East Students' Organisation (NESO) has called upon the MPs from the region to raise their voice against rising incidents of crime against students from the North east, particularly women, in the National Capital Region and asked the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to intervene to protect students.
The court of special judge in Guwahati on Friday granted 13 days National Investigation Agency custody for Raj Kumar Meghen, 65, the chairman of the banned United National Liberation Front, one of the oldest and biggest militant outfit in the North East that has been fighting for Manipur's secession from India since 1964.
Naga rebel group Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak Muivah has served extortion notice to the superintendent of Haflong civil hospital in North Cachar hill district of Assam creating panic among the doctors and staff as well as triggering a strong protest against the extortion bid.
A team of police and forest officials shot dead a Royal Bengal tiger at Nagabandha village in Morigaon district of Assam after it had strayed out of its natural habitat and killed two persons including a woman on Tuesday.
A campaign is brewing in Assam for allowing these deported Chinese-origin-Assamese and their descendants to visit their relatives in the state, thanks to an initiative of Sahitya Akademi Award winner and Assamese novelist Dr Rita Chowdhury.
Even as the Centre is trying to restore peace in insurgency-hit Dima Hasao district (erstwhile North Cachar Hill district) of Assam by engaging two factions of the Dima Halam Daogah in the peace process, another militant group is rearing its head in the troubled area.
The Assam government has requested the Centre for additional central forces to beef up security measures in the state in the wake of anti-talks faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland resorting to mindless killings of innocent civilians.
At least 19 persons including two women were killed and four injured when suspected militants from the anti-talks faction of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland opened indiscriminate fire on innocent civilians at seven places in Assam on Monday afternoon. Seventeen of the slain persons were Hindi-speaking while two were Nepali-speaking.